Comments

I am not sure my question is related to this grammar. If not, please guide me to the right one.
In the following sentence:
"Cloud Lab implements activities ranging from:"
why "ranging" is followed by ing?

The correct verb here is 'are' because the subject is two things 'your child's brain' [1] and '(your child's) immunity' [2].

You could use 'both' but it changes the meaning. When you say 'equally' you tell the reader/listener that neither is more important than the other. When you use 'both' you could still mean that one of these is more important than the other, though both are important.

I have a question on the usage of "-ing" form. For native speakers, the sentence "Don't leave water running" sounds totally natural. What about "Don't leave running water"?

In my personal feeling, the second sentence is not so colloquial as the first one, but I'm also thinking about the possibility of saying "there might be running water in this building and don't leave it when you find". And in this case, "don't leave" implies "don't ignore" and "it" should indicate "running water".

So I just want to clarify whether "Don't leave running water" is grammatically incorrect or is widely used as well.

Don't leave the water running means remember to turn it off. The verb 'leave' is one of a number of verbs which can be used with an -ing form (or an -ing clause) in this way. For more examples see this page.

Don't leave running water means stay with it. The verb 'leave' here has a literal meaning - to physically remain - and the -ing form has an adjectival role, describing the noun 'water'.

Both of those sentences are correct. The construction here is as follows:

not mind + -ing

I don't mind eating pasta.

I don't mind going to the party.

You can replace 'mind' with other verbs like 'hate', 'love', like', 'enjoy' and so on. In this structure the -ing form is a gerund and acts as a direct object; it is not part of a present continous verb phrase. You could use a noun in place of the gerund (e.g. 'I don't mind pasta').

The object can be a longer phrase:

I don't mind eating pasta at the weekend.

I don't mind going to the party with my friends on Saturdays.

Note that these are still objects. You can use the same -ing phrases as subjects: